ABOUT CATS ONLINE

Vaccine Induced Sarcoma and Neoplasene

Vaccine Induced Sarcoma - Little Angela's Story

Read the story of Little Angela - a cat that developed vaccine induced sarcoma after getting a feline leukemia vaccination. She was first diagnosed with vaccine induced sarcoma 15 months ago. She has had 3 surgeries so far. The the second one was over 9 months ago.

Unfortunately, her cancer came back recently and she had a 3rd surgery to remove the tumor on June 23, 2010. Read about her life story and her cancer treatments as well as facts about how to prevent this awful form of feline cancer: Vaccine Induced Sarcoma. Continue reading below to learn about her neoplasene treatments.

Vaccine Induced Sarcoma and Neoplasene Treatment

If you've been following the story of little Angela, the cat diagnosed in April, 2009 with vaccine induced sarcoma, then you know that she recently had her 3rd surgery to remove the sarcoma. Unfortunately, vaccine induced sarcoma is very difficult to treat effectively through surgery alone.

The cancer often comes back even after the tumor is surgically removed. In one study at Cornell University, out of nearly 100 cats with vaccine induced sarcoma who had their tumors surgically removed, only about 13 percent of them were still alive after 2 years had passed.

Even radiation and chemo treatments are often ineffective in battling this feline cancer.

Because little Angela's cancer came back for the third time, we decided to try something different. We will document her progress here so that other cat owners who may have a cat with vaccine induced sarcoma may benefit from our/her experience.

Neoplasene Cancer Treatment

Angela's veterinarian told us about a substance that may (or may not) be effective in preventing her vaccine induced sarcoma from returning a 4th time. This treatment is neoplasene, a substance manufactured by Buck Mountain Botanicals.

Neoplasene has been shown to selectively target and destroy cancer cells. It seems to work very well on surface / external cancers (from what I've read), but it isn't as clear how effective it is on internal or subcutaneous cancers.

Neoplasene comes in 3 forms: injectible, oral, and topical. We are giving our cat, Angela, the oral form in the hopes that it will destroy any remaining tumor cells and possibly prevent the cancer from coming back.

Our Neoplasene Experience So Far

I just recently began giving her the oral neoplasene treatment and so I can't say for sure if it works to prevent the cancer from returning or not. However, I can tell you how she has reacted to the neoplasene so far.

Little Angela began her neoplasene treatment just a few days ago (on July 12, 2010). We let her heal up after her surgery before starting her treatment.

Oral neoplasene has a very low pH (around 2.0) and so it must be mixed with something else before giving it to your animal. The vet told me to mix it with jar gravy, baby food, or canned cat food, and give it to her via oral syringe. She gets .18 cc of neoplasene mixed with about 3-4 ccs of canned cat food twice a day.

At first I tried mixing the neoplasene with jar gravy because I thought that might be easiest. She absolutely hated it. When she knew I was going to give it to her she would run and hide and often seemed worried throughout the day that I was about it give it to her. She fought when I gave it to her (which really wasn't like her) and she would sort of gag.

I almost stopped the neoplasene treatment at that point.

I decided that before I gave up I would try mixing it with something else in case it was the gravy itself that she didn't like and not the neoplasene.

I started mixing the neoplasene in with a little canned cat food and putting that into the oral syringe. Sometimes I mix a tiny amount of milk in with it.

She seems to like this a whole lot better. Even though she still isn't thrilled with it, she doesn't fight much and doesn't seem to mind it nearly so much. I really don't think she'd react much differently to just a small oral syringe full of canned cat food with no neoplasene in it.

So far, the neoplasene has not made her sick. She acts perfectly fine the rest of the day (unless she thinks I'm about ready to give her some more neoplasene), and plays and does her normal "cat things". Her appetite is good.

I should also mention that cats given oral neoplasene are only supposed to eat canned food and not dry food. I'm not certain of the reason for this, but I believe it has something to do with the carbohydrates in dry food and absorption of the oral neoplasene. I do let her eat a little dry food at times when it isn't near the time for her neoplasene dose. I want her to continue to be happy, after all, and she likes her dry food too much to deny her of it completely.

Today is July 17th and so it has been about 5 days since her treatment began. So far, I don't notice anything different, and it hasn't caused any sort of wound where her tumor is/was.

The jury is still out on whether this will prevent her vaccine induced sarcoma from returning. I'm not totally pleased with giving her this treatment, but if I don't give her the neoplasene, then I'm almost certain her cancer is just going to come back. She is only 7 and much too young to die of her vaccine induced sarcoma and so I was willing to try the oral neoplasene treatment after her cancer returned for a 3rd time.

I will continue to give her the neoplasene, unless it starts making her sick.

I'll also be publishing updates on her progress with this treatment so that other cat owners who may have a cat with vaccine induced sarcoma will be able to make a more informed decision about whether to try this treatment on their cat.

Email Us if You've Ever Given Neoplasene to Your Cat or Dog

If you are a cat or dog owner who has given neoplasene to your pet we would love to hear from you. Please email us at webmaster@aboutcatsonline.com and tell us about your experience with giving your pet neoplasene.

---